Author 



QW| 





Class W-3-8..L. 

Book ..#.r..-=39 



Title 



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10—30899-1. SPO 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




00052403^2 



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SPEECH 



OF THK 



HON. FRANCIS W/PICKENS, 



OK 80UTH CAROLINA, 



DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



On the 23d of May, 1S36, 



THE HOUSE BEING IN COMMITTED OF THK WHOLE 



OS THE 



FORTIFICATION Bllik* 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY BUFF GBBEPf. 

1836. 



*% 



— - .— ' ■ ■ — **- 



C'l SPEECH OF MR, PICKETS, 

OF SOUTH CAROLINA ; 

Delivered in the House of Representative?, May 23, 1336, the House being in Committee of 

the Whole on the 

FORTIFICATION BILL. 



Mr. Pickens said it was not agreeable for him to trespass upon the atten- 
tion of the committee, and he trusted he never could be induced to do so 
except from considerations of duty. 

Mr. Chairman: This debate has taken a wide range, and doctrines have 
been advanced and sentiments avowed, against which I feel bound to raise 
ray most solemn protest. The chairman of the Committee of " Ways and 
Means" (Mr. Cambreleng) withdrew an amendment on a former bill 
embracing the same principles, but declared that he would consider the whole 
debate as open upon the present occasion. 

However, before I proceed to reply to what has been advanced by other 
gentlemen, I propose to make a few observations on the general principles 
which shall govern my vote on the bill immediately under the consideration 
of the committee. 

As to appropriations towards those fortifications calculated to give efficiency 
and protection to our navy, I perhaps would be inclined tq ga as far as 
most gentlemen. I am in favor of those that are important for these purposes, 
and no other, so far as the Atlantic coast is concerned. I look upon it as 
one of the most idle and visionary schemes that has ever been conceived, to 
attempt a military line of fortifications on our Atlantic coast similar to those 
which European governments have adopted. Our population, comparativeiy 
speaking, is sparse, and we have a coast equal in extent to the whole western 
coast of Europe. Under these circumstances, our resources would not 
justify an attempt to encircle ourselves with a system of fortifications on a 
plan similar to those which more populous and far less extensive countries 
have adopted. Besides, we have no border powers against which it may be 
necessary to protect ourselves. We are remote from all other powers — with 
an immense and increasing commerce. Our physical position, and all the 
circumstances with which we are surrounded, proclaim a navy to be our only 
system of enlarged national defence. Our expenditures for fortifications 
ought to be made exclusively with a view to give protection and energy to 
our navy. With our extensive coast, you may make fortifications for land 
defence, and have your system, as you may suppose, perfect; but give your 
enemy ascendancy upon the ocean,, and they will land their forces at what- 
ever points they may think proper. No commercial country can rely for 
defence upon any thing but a well regulated navy. 



2 

Our true policy of defence is to increase and strengthen it by judicious 
points of fortification, so as to enable us to protect our whole coast by a 
stronger naval power than any nation would be able to concentrate against us. 
With this view, and looking to the natural division of our coast into four 
great bays, as it were, — the first from Passamaquaddy to Cape Cod, the second 
from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, the third from Cape Hatteras to Cape 
Florida, and the fourth to the Sabine, — I would say that extensive navy yards 
with efficient fortifications, should be established at the most suitable points 
between these different capes, so that an ordinary naval force, with brave and 
enterprising men, could easily defend the whole frontier, and at the same 
time protect our commerce. For instance, I would have such a navy -yard 
with fortifications at or near Boston — the same at or near New York — then 
at Norfolk and the mouth of the Chesapeake — the same at Charleston — and 
then at Pensacola, for the defence of the gulph and the commerce of the 
West. I would place these points on the best and strongest footing, equal to 
any in Europe, and make little or no expenditures on any other poin'\ so 
far as our Atlantic frontier is concerned. 

It is all idle and visionary to attempt to place our coast in a perfect state of 
defence by stationary fortifications — this can alone be done by those that 
move upon the face of the deep. There is scarcely any fortification but 
what can be passed under favorable tides and winds, and it is a military 
maxim that there is none but what can be taken. Look to those that were 
erected at Antwerp, with so much skill and labor, on the same plan of fortress 
Monroe, and which Bonaparte himself pronounced impregnable, and what 
was the result? The French battered them to the ground in twenty-four 
hours. The truth is, that for an invading force on land we must at last rely 
upon *< high minds and brave hearts," with bayonets, and not fortifications. 
Besides, sir, the genius of our institutions is at war with a standing army. 
But extend your visionary and wanton schemes of fortifications, and they 
call for an increased force to keep them in repair. Sir, I rejoice to say, that 
I believe the majority of the officers of your present army are men worthy to be 
trusted with the liberties of their country. But increase your military points, 
and call for a corresponding increase of men, and then place all under profli- 
gate and ambitious rulers, and there is no patriot who will not tremble for 
the consequences to his country. 

Mr. Chairman: There has been a great change in the condition and resources 
of our country within the last few years. Under the application of steam 
power to our coast and rivers., remote sections have been brought together, 
and the energies of the community have been condensed. Our weakness, 
arising from a sparse population, has been to a great extent overcome. If 
this be the effect of steam as applicable to the water, what must be the opera- 
tion of things under the tremendous schemes that are now in progress to 
bring the interior West to the sea coast by means of railroads ? I would 
rather have one railroad running from' our coast into that brave and enter- 
prising country, for the purposes of defence, than all the fortifications your 
overflowing treasury can erect. For military purposes, heretoiore, commu- 
nities have been strong in proportion to the denseness of their population. 
But the recent triumphs of invention and art over nature seem likely to 
develope new energy and resources, and may change the whole scheme of 
military defences in an extensive and widely populated country. Under 
these views,, I shall never vote for any fortification that cannot !:>e shown to be 



o» 



necessary for the strength and support of the navy. I would desire to have 
but few points, and place them on the most liberal and substantial basis. It 
is nothing but a wanton waste of the public money to attempt to embrace too 
many interests, and cover too many points. 

But, sir, I will now look at the operation of this system in another point 
of view. While you have been expending, for the last twenty years, millions 
upon millions in certain sections of this Union, other extensive sections have 
been to a great extent entirely neglected. When my colleague (Mr. Thomp- 
son) some weeks, "ince, with so much ability, demonstrated the unequal ope- 
ration of your ni I appropriations, he drew but a just picture of this Go- 
vernment in all iscal operations. As to our navy I am disposed to make 
some allowances appropriations heretofore, from the fact that our tonnage 
has been owned nd our large commercial transactions have, in a great 

measure, taken i those sections where the demand and supplies for a 

navy and its ap i u were naturally called for. But we have now reached 

a new era in om s, when other sections and other interests must be 

attended to. Here. e your Government has been profuse in its expendi- 
tures for the defence t, those portions of your country which you boast of 
being naturally the strongest, while you hava neglected those portions- 
which you have proclaimed to be the weakest. Is this the sound policy that 
should direct the energies of a fostering Government to protect equally the 
exposed points of a united people? 

Let it not be supposed that we complain of the unequal disbursements, 
merely for the dollars and cents involved. No; it is because the operation 
is deeply connected with the great principles of liberty. As a people under 
one Government, we present a different state of things from any other peo- 
ple. We are one for certain great purposes, and separate for others. As 
far as the pecuniary and fiscal transactions of Government are concerned, 
it is not to be disguised that we have sectional interests differently affected. 
As far as the States are concerned, we have in each peculiar sentiments, habits, 
and feelings. To preserve these is the very essence of our separate inde- 
pendence and existence. No people can be free at>i independent who are 
habitually and systematically excluded from the favors and benefits of the 
Government that acts upon them. Let it become fixed, as a settled policy, 
that the West and the South are only to feel this Government in its exactions, 
while other sections are to feel it in its disbursements — let it be known that 
we are to be converted into Roman provinces, from which you are to collect 
treasure and wealth to be distributed amongst those who may be styled 
4 <Roman citizens" — and then, sir, if such a system is to last — if this state of 
things is to be continued — you will soon see, under it, our industry and enter- 
prise droop and grow dull; you will see our spirits wither and die; genius 
will turn from lofty aspiration; our people will lose their burning feeling 
of patriotism; and from manly independence we will tamely sink down to 
become serfs and vassals under a mighty empire, where even the very boun- 
daries of the States will be lost and forgotten amid the ruin and desolation 
thrown' over a broken and disheartened country! 

It is useless and idle, at this period of the world, to talk about liberty, so 
far as it may be identified with personal rights and individual protection. 
These stand secured, and are, to a great extent, consecrated in the feelings 
and institutions of every civilized community on earth. In those great 
struggles which ended in the overthrow of feudal barbarism, the contest was 



for individual and personal liberty. But since the combination of the Hoi; 
Alliance, together with all the improvements and schemes of modern society, 
everything seems to tend towards an amalgamation of all Christendom into 
one system of organization, and the great contest now is for the political in- 
dependence of separate communities. This view becomes deeply interesting 
to us as independent States. An habitual exclusion of any portion of the 
States of this confederacy from the fiscal benefits of this Government, and 
power over its action, must end in a sacrifice of their political independence. 
Hence it is, that political power becomes deeply identified with political li- 
berty. A people to be free must feel that they are so. 

Compare these great principles with what now actually exists, and what 
has existed for the last twenty years. In that period of time this Govern- 
ment has collected §420,000,000, and after throwing out of the calculation 
the Si 30,000,000, which have been appropriated for the payment of the 
public debt, we then have left §290.000,000, of which $2 10,000,000 
have been disbursed in the Middle and Northern sections, while onlv 
$80, 000,000 have been disbursed in all the other sections. 

Let not gentlemen suppose that the West and the South are factious, when 
they oppose this system of disbursements. No! they see involved in it the 
highest interests and even the liberties of their country. 

I come now to what has been advanced by others in the progress 
ot this debate. The Chairman of the " Ways and Means" observed 
that the revenue system which this Government had adopted for the last 
twenty years, was the most unjust and oppressive that was ever adopted by 
any civilized Government. In this, sir, I agree with him. He also said that 
the commencement of this system was the tariff of 1816. To a considerable 
extent, I agree with him here too. But when be came to assert that the 
"compromise bill" was the consummation of that system, I confess I could 
not exactly understand him. There are principles in this bill which by no. 
means receive my approbation. The gentleman spoke of the evils com- 
plained of from the surplus in the treasury, and intimated that if it had not 
been for the "'compromise," a system would have been adopted which would 
have reduced the revenue now down to the wants of the Government. All 
this sounded very well from the gentleman in one part of his remarks. But 
when he came to another part, where he was attempting to defeat the " land 
bill," or any other just distribution of this surplus amongst the States, I con- 
fess I was astonished to see the gentleman labor so hard to prove that there 
was and would be no surplus. 

He entered into a long calculation to show that there would be no more 
than the wants of the Government would require. At one moment, he 
denounced the " compromise" as producing the evils of the surplus, to show 
how much better others could have done for the country; and then when he 
desired to retain what was in the treasury from a distribution, he attempts to 
prove that the same " compromise" has produced no surplus beyond what 
the Government will actually want. I leave the gentleman te reconcile this 
palpable absurdity and contradiction in his argument, if argument it can be 
called. But, sir, this contradiction was not more astonishing to me than the 
reasoning by which he jumped at his conclusions. He spoke loudly on the 
" ebbs and floods" of importations and exportations; and from something 
connected with these " ebbs and floods" which he knew of, he asserted that 
two years hence our importations would not exceed $40,000,000, and upon 



this our imposts would yield §10,000,000 of revenue. (Here Mr. Cambre- 
leng explained, and said that he meant the dutiable articles would not exceed 
that amount, but admitted that the importations would amount to 
5150,000,000.) Mr. Pickens resumed, and said he did not so understand 
the gentleman before. But if the gentleman admits that our importations 
will equal 5150,000,000, I am totally at a loss to perceive how he comes to 
the conclusion that our customs will then yield only $ 10,000,000. The 
system is biennial in its reduction, and then only amounting to ten per cent. 
If the whole importations are $150,000,000, unless the proportions vary 
entirely from what they have been heretofore, the dutiable articles must 
equal $66, 000,000, and this must yield a revenue of 317,000,000, instead of 
§10,000,000. No, sir; with our increasing and wide spreading population, 
stretching itself over the exuberant valleys of the Mississippi — the vast 
schemes of internal improvements developing the resources of the interior — 
industry and enterprise invigorating the remotest quarters of eur land — all, 
all, proclaim the increasing means of a great people with corresponding wants 
and demands. Under this prospect of things, I should be induced to think 
that in two years more our importations would reach §170,000,000, and 
that our customs would yield SlS,000,000. Your exports in cotton alone 
for the year ending on the 1st of last October, sold for 373,000,000, and this 
year they will probably reach near 890,000,000. This was the article which, 
in the plenitude of your wisdom, you pronounced over produced three years 
ago, when we raised less than ten hundred thousand bags, and sold it for less 
than nine cents, and you declared that production had then out-run demand. 
Last year we raised above 300,000 bags more, and sold it, notwithstanding 
your over-production, for sixteen cents. No man can foretell the develop- 
ments of this country under a wise system of free trade. No man can foresee 
the immense increase of importations and exportations of a free and unre- 
strained people, with the freshness of the virgin wilderness before thera. 

The gentleman cannot make the surplus vanish by figures. Even if all 
the reasonable expenditures that have been officially asked for be made, we 
will have, on the first of January next, at least S46,000,000 of surplus in the 
treasury, supposing the public lands to yield §17,000,000; and many put them 
as hio-h as §25,000,000. Good faith and prudence demand that this should 
be deposited, not in the corporations of the States, but in the treasury of the 
separate States themselves, in proportion to their federal representation, they 
being responsible for its repayment. This would give us the faith and credit 
of the States instead of the banks. But of this and of the gentleman's argu- 
ment on the "land bill," I will say more on another occasion. 

The gentleman, in his calculations to reduce the surplus, has placed 
$7,000,000 to be appropriated for Indian treaties, and in this I suppose he is 
correct. He also put down g5, 000,000 for the Florida war. Mr. Chair- 
man: I will not say that this is too much, but I will say that it is four times 
as much as it ought to have been. I will here take occasion also to say, tl 
this is onaof the most disgraceful wars that has ever occurred— disgraceful 
in its origin, and of no credit to those who have had the termination of the 
first, campaign. I am rather induced to believe that the gentleman from Vir- 
ginia (Mr. ' Wise) has given us the true causes of this war. It is not 
fmprobable that it was engendered by iniquitous authority given to agents 
and others, who, under the vile pretext of seizing fugitive slaves and purcha- 
sing others before the emigration of the lawless savage? could take place, 



attempted in some instances to seize even the children of their chiefs for 
bondage and sale, and then committed imposition and outrage, until suffering 
nature could bear it no longer. I forbear to say more at present, for I may 
be misinformed, and I trust for humanity, and for the honor of our Govern- 
ment, that I may be. But I will say, that whatever may or may not have 
been the treatment of the Indians, I believe that many of those who have 
volunteered to defend your border have been, to say the least, treated with 
coldness and neglect. I do not stand here to complain for them. What they 
have suffered and borne, they have borne without a murmur, for the honor 
and character of their State. But representing, as I do, perhaps as many of 
these spirited men as any other gentleman, I take occasion to say that they 
volunteered their services, not as the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Adams) sneeringly says, because it was to them a "fat business,-" but to defend 
your exposed frontier, after this Government, from neglect and injustice, had 
involved us in a cruel and merciless war of plunder and murder. These very 
men who have so honorably sustained your stars and your stripes, were from 
amongst those whom your Government Press here, and its pensioned bands, 
have denounced for the last two years as traitors to their country. And 
what has been the fact ? While they have gone forth to encounter hardship 
and exposure in vindication of your honor and your power, those, who some 
years since, were so eager to exhibit their patriotism by volunteering in a 
civil war of extermination to be waged on their own brethren, have made 
no move in this recent war to let off the exuberance of their spirit, bu<: 
have kept back in that silence which belongs to their servility. After all 
that our citizens have done in this unfortunate savage war, it ill becomes the 
officer you placed there to command them, considering that he had but 
recently come fresh from the fields of his triumph in manceuvering and 
stratagy — I say it little becomes him to cast a sneer over them as "volun- 
teers," and not "good troops." 

But, sir, to return. The gentleman from New York, (Mr. Cambreleng) toj 
exhaust the surplus, has put down §10,000,000 for the war in which we will 
be involved with Mexico on our southwestern borders. 

Mr. Chairman; To say the least of it, this declaration, coming from on/ 
who bears such a relation to this House and country as the gentleman does, 
was as imprudent as any thing could well be. Every thing relating to the 
affairs of Texas involves questions of the deepest and most delicate interest. 
and it does not become us at present to say or do any thing that may lead to 
embarrassment. I trust there will be no war to which the gentleman alludes. 
Whatever may be the power or policy of those governments that are in their 
nature unlimited, I hold that, under our constitution, which we are sworn 
to defend, with its limited trust powers conferred on us for the interest and 
benefit of this people, we have no right to go into a war except purely for 
self-defence. There are certain great moral obligations which, should ever 
bind governments as well as individuals, and which, particularly under our 
peculiar institutions, should never be forgotten on any occasion, no matter 
how tempting. A war with Mexico for conquest would lead to a conflict 
with European powers, the end of which it would not be easy to foretell. I 
have as much cause to feel sympathy as most gentlemen, for I had the j 
companion of my boyhoood — the friend of my maturer years — brave, 
chivalrous, and daring to the highest degree, inhumanly butchered in the fall 
of the Alamo. But I shall never suffer the feelings and sympathies of my 



heart to prompt me, under impulse, to do any thing calculated to involve 
others in consequences the most serious, unless under a case of clear justifi- 
cation. 

But, sir, whatever ma}' have heen the calculations of gentlemen, the recent 
glorious and triumphant victory gained to the arms of Texas has entirely 
'impelled them. I deprecated debate heretofore, because I feared that it 
might lead to consequences calculated to embarrass the negotiating power of 
this Government. I frankly avow that it is an object near and dear to my 
heart, to acquire Texas for this Union. Sir, I desire this, not as has been 
said, to extend the boundaries of slavery, but for the purpose of extending 
the boundaries of liberty. Who is there so cold and heartless that he would 
desire to limit the confines of this great and growing Republic? If even all 
the nations of Christendom were anxious to adopt our constitution, and cover 
themselves under its principles, is there a man here whose heart would not 
beat and whose eye would not kindle with joy at the anticipation of such 
an event. And who is there so narrow and contracted that would not extend 
our union and protection to those who are our neighbors — who speak our 
language — identified with us, as they are, in interest and in feeling — who 
went from our fire-sides and from our altars — who are our own brethren 
and relatives? Who is there amongst us that would turn his hand upon the 
hardy enterprise of a brave and daring people? 

Yes, sir! they are ours by position — ours by all the sympathies of our 
nature — ours by all the bonds of interest — ours by all the ties that can bind 
man to his fellow man. I desire their union, not because it would strengthen 
the slaveholding States — I scorn to place it upon any such narrow grounds 
but because I desire to nurture with our fostering:; care a noble em- 
pire for the free, just now quickening into life — because I desire that our 
banner may float aloft, and that the whole race of civilized man shall sleep 
in peace under its broad and benignant folds. 

Mr. Chairman: I come now to examine some of the abstract doctrines 
which fell from the gentleman from New "York, (Mr. Cambreleng.) 
and which 1 heard with profound astonishment. The gentleman, after 
speaking of the triumphs of the democracy, proclaimed that he hoped the 
time was soon coming when the people would declare, in language not to be 
mistaken, "that no legislation should bind posterity." Sir, if this sentiment 
had been uttered only by the colleague of the gentleman on my extreme 
right, (Mr. Moore,) it would have excited in me no attention, for I took that 
gentleman's wild declamation to be better suited for the "loco foco" party in 
the streets of New York than for the halis of legislation. But coming as it 
did from the Chairman of the ''Ways and Means," who from his years and 
experience may be supposed not to speak without reflection, it is a doctrine 
which deserves the most serious attention of this country. I am aware that 
this doctrine claims for its origin high authority — authority which in my 
opinion has been looked to with full as much reverence as it deserves. I 
am aware that if has recently been promulgated in an ingenious pamphlet 
from Ohio against all corporations, and that it is openly preached in the 

I Northern and Middle sections of this Union, where in all probability it will 
soon become the popular doctrine of the day. 
What, sir! no legislation bind posterity!! Push this doctrine to its conse- 
quences, and where does it lead to? What becomes of your public faith? 
What becomes of vour national honor? Let it be known that those trea- 



:ies which bind you in your intercourse with the nations of the earth, are to 
be disregarded and defied by the whim* the interest, or the ambition of the 
ascendant party of to-day, and we must then necessarily be excluded from 
civilized society. No legislation bind posterity!! What bore us in glory and 
in triumph through the war of our revolution, but that legislation which bound 
posterity to redeem the debt incurred to sustain your armies upon the field of 
battle? What sustained us through the second war of our independence, but the 
power t;> pledge the resources of this nation for the great purposes of self- 
preservation? Is this Congress to do nothing that can bind those who are to 
come after us? Go back at once and tear up your Declaration of Indepen- 
dence itself — scatter into a thousand pieces the parchment of your Constitu- 
tion, and substitute, in the place thereof, the shouts of a mob proclaiming 
their triumphs of to-day, or the power of a lawless multitude waving over 
a blood-stainsd land the sceptre of anarchy to-morrow. No legislation bind 
posterity!! Where is faith? Where is honor? Where is public law? Where 
is public morality? Sir, this is a doctrine at war with peace, policy, and 
honor. It breaks down all that is venerable, virtuous, and consecrated in 
the institutions of civilization itself. If this be the doctrine that the gen- 
tleman, and the party with which he is identified, intend practically to enforce 
in this country, I can tell him'that, when he attempts it, a hundred thousand 
plumes will wave over a hundred thousand lances, couched to vindicate all 
those sacred rights which have been acquired under the plighted faith of 
this Government. 

But, sir, the gentleman dropped another remark that struck me with pecu- 
liar force. He asserted thatthe time would soon come when the Government 
should sell the public lands to non,e but emigrants who were actual settlers. 
Where is the right under the Constitution by which this Government would 
attempt to exclude any class of free citizens from purchases of the public 
domain? Where is the right by which you shall claim to distribute it amongst 
a particular class? If it. be intended by this to feed the appetite and minister 
to the desires of that class who may have no peculiar ties or interests to 
Mnd them to the place of their nativity — if it be intended to catch that class 
who move through the land from one end to the other, having no home, and 
feeling for no country, then it is vile agrarianism. Has it come to this, tha 
a man is to be excluded from the benefits and privileges under this Government 
because, by industry, economy, or enterprise, he should be so fortunate as to 
accumulate property, cr because he may happen to be associated with others 
who have? Are citizens whose ties and interests may bind them to reside iu 
one State, to be excluded from holding a freehold in another? 

If this system of selling alone to a certain class, be intended by the gentle- 
man as an equal division of the public domain, then he should remember that 
when the Roman people came to receive their distribution from the public 
granaries, they became prostituted and debased. When their conquering 
Generals came loaded with the spoils of devastated provinces, and were 
enabled to deal out bread and bounties to this class or that class, then, 
through bribery and corruption, they bought their way to power over the 
prostrate liberties of their coun' 

lint the gentleman made another declaration, which I confess filled my 
heart with the most gloomy forebodings for the future. After speaking of 
the bloated state of things in the country at present, he conclude;] by de- 
claring that "the whole nation was now one common gambling house!" 



Considering the position he occupies in this House, and the relation he bears 
to the dominant party that now rules this confederacy — considering that from 
his residence, he must be intimately acquainted with the secret springs of 
speculation and commerce — I confess I heard this solemn declaration with 
no ordinary emotions. This nation one common gambling house! And who 
made it so? Let those who hold the reins of Government answer this aw- 
ful question. Mr. Chairman, next to the omnipotence and omnipresence of 
that superintending Providence that moves upon the affairs of the world, there 
is no power that exercises so great an influence over the feelings, the sen- 
timents, and the very nature of man, as the Government that acts upon him, 
and those who administer its authority. Let an individual become abandoned 
and profligate, and the consequences of his vice and iniquity are for the most 
part confined to himself, and those immediately around him. But let those 
who hold in their hands the destinies of a great people become corrupt and 
lawless — let them trample over the great fundamental principles of the Go- 
vernment — let them become ambitious and profligate — and the consequences 
are felt in the remotest circles of society; the highest and the lowest come 
under this tremendous influence. Look over the world and see its fairest 
portions, where civilization, art, and refinement once held their softand min- 
gled sway, now laid low in ruin and decay. Go, walk by the broken columns 
of the Parthenon, or stand on the grave of Miltiades — go and visit the tomb 
of Virgil, or the villas of Tolly — and why is it that you hear no longer 
the voice of the orator, or see no more the poet and the warrior? Is it be- 
cause the uplifted hand of God has for ever blighted those fairest portions of 
his creation? No, no; it comes from the iniquity of corrupt, fallen, am- 
bitious man. It is his usurping hand that has laid these fair regions low, 
and made a degenerate, desponding, and broken hearted people. 

And, sir, when it is now announced, that our "nation is one common 
gambling house," let those who sit on the seats of power tremble for the 
future. They may pass through this world, and receive its applause — they 
may proclaim in triumph that they have received the approbation of their 
country, and when the gnawings of a guilty conscience shall be felt, they may 
pour upon it the sweet unction that rises from the huzzas of a passing mob; 
but when they shall have gone through these scenes, and shall come to that 
last sad day when the secrets and recesses of the human heart shall be laid 
open before a tribunal that is never deceived and that never errs — when they 
rise before the searching eye of an avenging God, then let the question be 
asked, who made this nation one common gambling house; and, if I mistake 
not, you will see them quake and tremble as did Babylon's corrupt and re- 
velling crew when they beheld upon the wall the handwriting that announced 
their guilt and proclaimed their destiny. 

Mr. Chairman: I propose to examine, who "made usone common gambling 
house." Another gentleman from New York, (Mr. McKean,) took this 
occasion to pass an eulogy upon the present administration. lie also exhibited 
the claims of the different candidates for the Presidency, making all merely 
sectional, except one, who stood upon bioad and enlarged principles that 
embraced the' whole Union, — who stood pledged to carry out the principles 
of the present administration. And this gentleman, at the conclusion of 
Ids remarks, with quite as much modesty as discretion, thought proper to 
read us a lecture on parties, deprecating all party topics, as not to be drawn 
into discussion on this great bill of so much interest. Yes, sir, this Phara- 



10 

saical party, who arrogate to themselves all virtue, and thank God that 
they are not as other men, have the effrontery to call upon us to hold our 
peace, while they stand pledged to carry out the principles of the present 
administration! Let us briefly look back and see what are these principles. 

One of the first avowals of principle was the indirect pledge made by the 
President in his famous letter to the Tennessee Legislature, in which he 
laid it down that no member of Congress should be appointed to office 
during his membership, and for two years afterwards. The next great 
pledge made in the canvass was that no man should be dismissed from office 
for opinion sake. This principle was indirectly avowed by the war made 
upon those who were supposed to have done so. Then came the celebrated 
inaugural, in which reform! reform! stood out in bold relief in every line. 
The "Augean stables were to be cleansed." Now, I hold that the public 
pledges which a man makes before the world, are as binding upon him by 
all the principles of sound morality as his pledged honor in private, and he 
who would wantonly disregard the one would violate the other. Those 
public men who notoriously set at defiance all the pledges that they have 
ever made, go very far to set an example well calculated to produce looseness 
of morality and general profligacy, all tending to make the nation a common 
"gambling.house," where falsehood and treachery hold a triumphant sway. 

What has been the fact with reference to the first pledge, to which I have 
alluded? More members of Congress have been appointed to office than 
under an}' three administrations since the commencement of the Government. 
And as to dismissals from office for political opinions, I have only to state 
the remarkable fact, that in all the administrations of this Government up 
to the present, all the dismissals together amount to only seventy-four, while 
in this administration there have been upwards of nine hundred; and two 
hundred and thirty of them important officers. Is this the principle the 
gentleman (Mr. McKean) would advocate? As to the reform pledged in 
the inaugural, we have had it. This modern reform has come over us with 
all its blessings. True, there has been a change, but it has only been a change 
from those who were in office, to the vilest and most lawless crew that were 
ever raised up under the dispensations of Providence to scourge a degenerate 
and ungfateful people. Sycophancy and servility have taken the place of all 
the heroic and manly virtues. The rooks, together with obscene birds, have 
perched themselves in the high places of the land, and we sit here beneath 
surrounded daily with their filth and putrified corruption. Office holders 
(now become miserable dependants) and office seekers infest every turn and 
corner; and let it be known that any man has influence from his being the 
tool of those who have patronage to confer, and he is overwhelmed with the 
bowing and cringing of these slaves and beggars. Crowds of miserable 
hungry beings creep and crawl, in the darkness of midnight, through the 
hidden recesses and gloomy avenues that lead up to the throne of royal fa- 
vor. These creatures, generated as they are in despotism, are pervading the 
country and becoming more loathsome than the creeping lice or "slimy 
frogs of Egypt" ever were in the days of God's judgments. This, sir, is 
the reform with which we are blessed. 

Mr. Chairman, we cannot shut our eyes to what we see passing around 
us. The Government is virtually changed, and the people seem to be sink- 
ing into acquiescence. The dismissal of the first cabinet, upon the notorious 
principles involved, was an open avowal that arbitrary will should govern 






\ 



II 

even in private circles. The war waged upon all the constituted authorities 
of the land — upon the Supreme Court — upon the Senate — and even at first 
upon this House, because they were favorable to a recharter of the 
U. S. Bank — and then the appeals constantly made to the people as one 
aggregate mass — all, all, announced in language not to be mistaken, that the 
Constitutional Republic of States was to be broken down, and that a simple 
democracy of brutal numbers, with an elective and unlimited monarch ? 
was to be raised over the ruins. 

The President has habitually, through flattery, appealed to the passions and 
prejudices of all that is ignoble and low in society, to sustain him in his 
reckless career upon the institutions of his country. In this he has pursued 
the course of all those who have intended to usurp the liberties of the 
people. Caesar, when he crossed the Rubicon, did it to bless the people 
and preserve the laws. He refused the crown that was urged upon him, 
and then took it to please the people. By what authority is it that the 
President makes his appeals to the people, as contra-distinguished from the 
laws and constitution of his country ? He was elected, not by a simple ma- 
jority of the whole, but by majorities from the States. Every principle in 
the constitution is against making this a simple majority Government. It 
was made, and can alone be altered by States. The States are equal in one 
branch; and even the representation in this House is differently modified 
from different States. Change this state of things, and convert it into a 
simple un»mixed democracy, and you immediately raise one interest in society 
in deadly hostility against another, which must end, as all simple democra- 
cies have done, in a dictator or an elective but unlimited monarchy. To 
restrain the Executive interest in all Governments, there must be created 
some independent and antagonist interest in society, which shall be habitually 
felt in the practical operation of the Government. You have wisely abolished 
the aristocracy of the old world; but unless we substitute for it, in the action 
of this Government, the territorial interests of the States, to be felt in full 
effect through a co-ordinate branch, we have improved nothing on English 
liberty. The Executive, without this check, necessarily becomes the source 
of all honor and power, and absorbs all other interests. 

Is this not the fact now? Is there a practical man here who does not know 
that the Executive is at this moment the controlling and unrestrained power 
of this confederacy? Is it not proclaimed with triumph that he has a ma- 
jority in both Houses? Where then is the practical check ? 

I maintain, sir, that the Government in fact is changed, and has become 
absolute! Look at the history of the times, and doubt it if you can! Some 
two years since the President issued a proclamation for the open purpose of 
bringing down civil war upon an independent State of this Union. This 
extraordinary document declared that the States "were not and never were 
at any period sovereign and independent." This assertion was directly in 
the face of all history, for the Declaration of Independence itself announced 
that "these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States." 
The second article of confederation declares that "each Slate retains its 
sovereignty, freedom, and independence." And yet, notwithstanding this 
bare-faced falsehood, what was the result? This instrument, by which the 
sovereignty, pride, self-respect, and independence of the States were cloven 
down by a single dash, was received amid hallelujahs; and the very States 
that were disgraced by it, instead of calling up the spirit of the entombed 



12 

Constitution, bowed down in subserviency, while the whole nation, by uni- 
versal acclamation, seemed to join in the modern apotheosis of its nominal 
author. Is there any man now, who looks back coolly, that does not believe 
this to be the proclamation that changed the Republic? 

And here let me refer to an instance as illustrating the change of the times, 
and to show that the whole country, the high and the low, are sinking under 
delusion into the universal " humbuggery " of the day. Last summer I 
observed an account of a large meeting in the refined, polished, and hospit- 
able city of Boston, called to attend the ceremony of presenting their dis- 
tinguished and intellectual citizen with a silver cup, on which was inscribed 
"the defender of the constitution." Who sustained the principles of the 
proclamation? who embodied them in the "Force Bill"? who carried that 
measure through, and placed it on the statute book, consecrating the usurpa- 
tion of all power in the hands of the Executive? This "defender of the 
constitution." And it is remarkable that he, in the very speech in which 
he returned his thanks, declared that the constitution was virtually changed, 
and that all power was now in the hands of the Executive. I refer to this 
scene merely to show, that even the intelligent and educated are falling 
under the delusions of the day, and if they be so blind, what must be ex- 
pected from others who bask in power and live by deception? I hope there 
is no man now, who can look back upon these two measures to which I have 
alluded, and then see what he now knows to exist around him, without 
learning some impressive and solemn lessons as to the downward career of 
the Republic. 

But to return. While triumphal arches were raised, upon which was 
inscribed "the principles of the proclamation, the principles of New 
England" — while he whose whole life had been an open war upon all law 
was receiving in the halls of Universities the flattering unction of " Dr. of 
the learned laws" poured upon his head — what was the remarkable fact? He 
was then actually penning the order for the lawless seizure of the whole 
treasure of the nation. 

Considering the state of things, this was a sagacious and profound move, 
and those who planned it well understood the downward progress of events, 
and the recorded history of liberty. Usurpation upon usurpation had been 
perpetrated. The great principles of the constitution had been subverted 
This measure was absolutely necessary to sustain the power that had been 
acquired, and to transmit it to a successor. It diverted public attention from 
what had been done. Despotism and usurpation, in other countries, rely 
upon the sword and a standing army to sustain themselves; but from the na- 
ture of our institutions they are compelled here to rely upon leagued banks, 
money, office holders and office seekers, bribery and corruption. Law- 
less power here relies upon deception and fraud, while elsewhere it relies 
upon force. 

I question very much whether, in this country, we can ever have even the 
privilege of an appeal to revolution. Each State has its own peculiar local 
interests and peculiar public opinion. This almost forbids all s\stem and 
concert of action, and he \v"ho is at the head of affairs must have little talent 
indeed, if with his tremendous power and patronage, he is not able to play 
off one part of the community against the other. But there is another cause 
which 1 fear may prove fatal to the prospects of liberty. I very much doubt 
whether even a reform can ever take place. With our immense system of 



13 

credit, extending itself into all the ramifications of the community — with 
our seven hundred banks pressing down upon all the secret spri ngs of society 9 
and transacting business upon calculations made for the future — I say I doubt 
whether, under this vast and complicated system, the various interests of 
which no man can fathom, whether even reform can ever take place. All 
those who may be directly or indirectly (and who is not?) interested in this 
stupendous system, would prefer to acquiesce under a despotism rather 
than to run the hazard of a change from reform or revolution. 

Those who seized the monied resources of the nation well knew the 
resistless power they were to wield, controlling as it does, directly and indi- 
rectly, at least one hundred millions of capital. Other people have to 
submit to the sword drawn over them by a conqueror, who may at least have 
the manliness of courage to command some respect, but we have to submit 
to a mean and infamous despotism, sustained by a monied power, controlling, 
through bribery and corruption, all that is abandoned and profligate in society. 
No wonder that " the whole nation is one common gambling house." 

Let us now look to a more recent event as distinctly marking this great 
change in our Government. And on this point I will take the facts as stated 
with so much spirit by the gallant gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Wise,) and 
which I have never seen the slightest pretence to deny. I allude to the last 
night of the last Congress, when scenes occurred of the deepest importance 
to the liberties of this country. It was then that the President, with the 
first officer of his cabinet, and the second officer of the Government, came 
into the dark recesses of this Capitol, and, through his vile minions and 
miserable tools, defeated a measure of vast importance before this House 
for the notorious purpose of waging a popular war upon the Senate. Crom- 
well went into the House of Commons at the head of armed men and 
ordered its dissolution. But here, sir, we have a President who comes not 
like a soldier, but at the head of his servile courtiers and sycophants, and 
practically asserts his ascendancy over both branches of our Legislature by 
management and duplicity. Is this our independence under the constitution? 
Is this the check that we were designed to exercise by the provisions of that 
noble instrument? Where is the spirit of our forefathers? Better, far better 
for us to be "dogs and bay the moon," or " toads and feed on the vapor of 
a dungeon," than to hold our seats here only to disgrace the memory of those 
who have gone before us. I know that we are apt to become indifferent 
and callous under the habitual contemplation of evils which seem almost to 
forbid a remedy. And it is from this that liberty is lost. We sit here and 
see things which we have not the courage or manliness to resist. 

What is now passing before this country in the history of the day? An 
attempt is now openly being made to expunge the constitution, and drag 
down the Senate in humble penitence before a master for having dared to 
express an independent sentiment. If this succeeds, it will be the consum- 
mation of our downfall. 

Sir: I am aware that under certain circumslances an individual may 
desire that his crimes should be expunged from the memory of man — I 
am aware that there are those who would desire to convert the whole earth 
into one universal pandimoneum, only that they might become prominent 
from their very iniquity and reign triumphant from their very guilt. But I 
am totally at a loss to understand the feelings tha ; could prompt any human 
being to desire to see a whole body ot men, intended by our ancestors to be 



( / 



14 

exalted and independent, bowing around the throne of a lawless and reckless 
man — bearing in their hands the Constitution to be burned, that the smoke 
thereof may rise to satiate his vengeance and appease his wrath. Sir, it is, it 
is the reign of Cssjar, and we arc cowards, dastards, slaves, if we submit to 
this state of things, and shall deserve to have our children raise before us 
their little hands, and shake their manacles, saying thou did it, thou did it. 

Mr. Chairman, I have said that this is the reign of Caesar. Sir, I have 
read the history of the Roman people to little advantage, if I am to be de- 
ceived at this late day in what I see passing around me. We are now where 
that people were when the empire was to be divided between Anthony Oc- 
tavius and Lepidus. Caesar had folded his r.;bes and perished under the 
dagger of Brutus. And although we may have none at present with the fine 
talents and acquirements of Anthony, yet. we have many with his private 
profligacy and abandoned principles. As to Lepidus, I need only point to the 
gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. R. M. Johnson,) but as he is a member of 
this House I forbear to trace the parallel at present. The beardless Octavius 
had done nothing to identify himself with the glory and the honor of his 
country, but he became prominent from the fact that he was supposed to in- 
herit the sympathy that was then running so strong in favor of the fallen Caesar. 
Wary, artful, and sagacious, he saw his position and made the most of it. 

We too have a modern Octavius, who, winding his way under the robes of 
royal favor, proclaims himself the true and anointed successor, pledged to 
carry out the principles of his master. What other earthly claim has the 
Vice President to his present position, except that he is supposed to be the 
chosen favorite of him who has trampled over the liberties of his country? 
The gentleman from New York (Mr. M'Kean) has declared him to be the 
snly candidate who has claims upon the whole Union. 

For the present I pass by an investigation into his political principles, and 
shall only refer to one document, which speaks a language not to be mistaken, 
and develops the feelings and the nature of the man — which writes his history 
and his character more fully than all the volumes that can be composed by a 
flattering biographer. No man can read it without knowing its author. It 
is a letter written from London, in answer to a committee in New York, 
who condoled with him for his rejection as minister to the court of St. James. 
I will read from it the following extract in relation to Genl. Jackson: 

"In testifying to my public conduct, they are pleased to speak with eulo- 
gium of me, as contributing, while in the cabinet, to the success of the pre- 
sent administration. That signal success, I feel called upon to declare, is 
pre-eminently due to the political sagacity, unwearying industry, and 
upright straight forward course of our present venerated chief. All the 
humble merit I can claim is, that of having exerted myself to the utmost to 
execute his patriotic and single-hearted views, and of having sacrificed all 
personal considerations to ensure their success, when threatened with extra- 
neous embarrassments. That my exertions were arduous, painful, and in- 
cessant, I may without vanity assert; whether my sacrifices have not been 
repaid with unmerited detraction and reproach, I leave to my countrymen 
to determine. Still I shall ever regard my situation in that cabinet as one 
of the most fortunate events of my life, placing as it did me in close and 
familiar relation with one who has well been described by Mr. Jefferson as 
••'possessing more of the Roman in his character than any man living," and 
whose administration will be looked to, in future times, as a golden era in 



15 

our history. To have served under suck a chief, at su?h a time, and to have 
won his confidence and esteem, is a sufficient glory; and of that, thank God, 
my enemies cannot deprive me." 

Mr. Chairman, I am perfectly aware that many a man might have uttered 
such sentiments without any extraordinary degradation. If they had come 
from one who had for ever retired into private life, it would have been of no 
great importance. If they had come from one who was humble and lowly, 
and had received private favors from a benefactor, it would have attracted 
no attention. But coming as they did from one who was artful and saga- 
cious — who had fixed his eye on the first offices of his country with an 
ambition that has never varied — who was gazing with eagerness for partisan 
support — I say, sir, that under all the circumstances of the case, they are 
base, vile, degraded, and degrading sentiments, which no freeman ever con- 
ceived in his heart, and none but a flatterer ever uttered. If I am to have 
a leader , in the name of all that is lofty and honorable, let him be one who 
has the feelings, the independence, the heart of a man. If I am to follow, 
let it not be one who cringes before, and fawns upon the hand of a master. 
Every feeling of my soul revolts with scorn and indignation at such senti- 
ments. 

But, sir, look around, and what is the glaring fact in the history of the day? 
These sentiments have had their weight. Is not the whole patronage and 
power of this Government, at this moment, wielded for the open purpose of 
rewarding their author? Is it to be disguised that the Baltimore convention 
assembled to nominate a successor under the dictation of the President? 
Is there a man, who has sagacity to perceive consequences, that doubts it? 
Let those things succeed, and it is idle to talk about a free government. We 
may have the exterior of freedom, but it will be a whitened sepulchre, fair 
and beautiful to look on, but full of corruption and rottenness within. 

I commit no man nor no party, but I here take opportunity to 
lay down the doctrine that he who comes into power under such circum- 
stances, comes in, to all intents and purposes, as much a usurper as if he 
had come in by the sword of revolution. Such a government is to be obeyed 
merely from political expediency, and not constitutional obligation. 
What difference, in fact, is there between a government brought upon the 
country by presidential dictation, fraud, and patronage, and one forced 
upon us by the arms of a conqueror? 

In those countries where the succession may be fixed by the hereditary 
laws of the land — where things have grown up from time immemorial, and 
become the fixed principles of the constitution, a people can make claims to 
freedom, if the succession take place consistent with their institutions. But 
in this country, where we have a written constitution, every line of which 
maintains the freedom of the elective franchise, from the highest to the low- 
est, if we submit to dictation or appointment, directly or indirectly, from any 
earthly power, we are slaves in feeling and in fact, and shall deserve our 
destiny. 

The janissaries of Turkey could at one time bow-string a sultan, and en- 
throne his successor. A Roman despot could at one time make his horse a 
consul, while his degenerate countrymen cowered beneath the imperial 
eagles waving along the lines of Prastorean bands. Cromwell anointed 
himself as one prepared to be a martyr, and called upon his round-head fol- 
lowers to baptize him in the blood of Charles the First, that he might come 
out a saint fit to wear the robes of a dictator, and claim the sworn allegiance 
of a deluded and enslaved people. 



16 

True, we have no janissaries — no Praetorean bands — no army of the com- 
monwealth, as yet. But we have what is meaner, baser, and more degrading 
— we have a hundred thousand office holders and office seekers — monied 
corporations from one end of the Union to the other — we have the patron- 
age of this Government and the power and popularity of the President — all, 
all acting together in concert, and devoted to the sole object of appointing 
a successor, and transmitting ill-gotten power to those who will fawn to re- 
ceive it. 1 care not what may be the principles to be avowed by such an 
administration, I make open uncompromising war against the mode and 
manner of appointment. 

How long are these things to last? Are they to be borne by a free people? 
Think you that one half of this great nation is for ever to be ruled over by 
the other half, upon such principles as these? Think you that the intellectual 
and virtuous of a great people are for ever to be trampled over and spurned 
by ignorance and brutal numbers? No, sir, it is not nature to bear it. The 
worm that crawls in the dust will turn when tread on. And shall man, 
rational man, sink himself lower than the vilest of creation? Sir, if these 
things are to be borne, go first and tear from the pages of history those leaves 
which transmit to posterity our glory and our honor — go first and gather 
together the Declarations of our Independence and make of them a bon-fire 
— go first to the graves of our gallant dead, harrow up their bones, and 
scatter to the four winds of Heaven their dust and their ashes — tell our little 
children these men are unworthy to be remembered, and their deeds to be 
imitated; we must then do more — change the very names of our own children — 
aye, we must change their very natures — turn back the current that now runs 
warm from their hearts, and run it into new channels pull fdown the 
star-spangled banner and trample it in the dust beneath your feet — then, and 
not until then, shall we be prepared to wear in peace the chains of slaves and 
the livery of bondsmen. 

Mr. Chairman, I am aware that I have uttered sentiments ill calculated to 
suit the public ear — I know, sir, that I have uttered sentiments which for ever 
cut me off from all hope of favor from this Government, or with those who are 
destined to control it. But I stand hereto speak the truth to my country. What 
is a man born for? Is it that, through deception and sycophancy, he may wind 
his way to power? Is it that, for the day, he may catch passing popularity, 
that miserable mushroom thing which springs up in the moisture and darkness 
of night, only to wither and die under the beams of the noon-day sun? No, 
sir, man lives that he may live hereafter, in the hearts and affections of his 
countrymen, for having vindicated their interests, their honor, and their 
liberties. This, in my opinion, is the highest destiny that awaits an earthly 
career. 



